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Silent Night
| published = | movements = | scoring = | misc = }} "Silent Night" ( ) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011. The song has been recorded by many singers across many music genres. The version sung by Bing Crosby in 1935 is the fourth best-selling single of all-time. History The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire on the Salzach river in present-day Austria. A young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. He had written the lyrics of the song " " in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked as a co-adjutor. The melody was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf. Before Christmas Eve, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for the Christmas Eve mass, after river flooding had damaged the church organ. The church was eventually destroyed by repeated flooding and replaced with the Silent-Night-Chapel. It is unknown what inspired Mohr to write the lyrics, or what prompted him to create a new carol. According to Gruber, Karl Mauracher, an organ builder who serviced the instrument at the Obendorf church, was enamoured with the song, and took the composition home with him to the Zillertal. From there, two travelling families of folk singers, the Strassers and the Rainers, included the tune in their shows. The Rainers were already singing it around Christmas 1819, and once performed it for an audience that included Franz I of Austria and Alexander I of Russia, as well as making the first performance of the song in the U.S., in New York City in 1839. By the 1840s the song was well known in Lower Saxony and was reported to be a favourite of Frederick William IV of Prussia. During this period, the melody changed slightly to become the version that is commonly played today. Over the years, because the original manuscript had been lost, Mohr's name was forgotten and although Gruber was known to be the composer, many people assumed the melody was composed by a famous composer, and it was variously attributed to Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven. However, a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr's handwriting and dated by researchers as . It states that Mohr wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr's handwriting. The first edition was published by in 1833 in a collection of Four Genuine Tyrolean Songs, with the following musical text:"Silent Night" revisited by Norbert Müllemann, G. Henle Verlag, 24 December 2012 \relative c'' { \key c \major \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"acoustic guitar (nylon)" \time 6/8 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 60 \autoBeamOff g8.^"First edition" a16 g8 e4. | g8. a16 g8 e4. | d'4 d16. b32 b4. | c4 c16. g32 g4. | a4 a8 c8. b16 a8 | g8. a16 g8 e4. | a4 a8 c8. b16 a8 | g8. a16 g8 e4. | d'4 d8 f8.-> d16 b8 | c4. (e4) r8 | c8. g16 e8 g8. f16 d8 | c4.~ c4 r8 \bar "|." } The contemporary version, as in the choral example below, is: \relative c'' { \key c \major \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"acoustic guitar (nylon)" \time 6/8 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 60 \autoBeamOff g8.^"Contemporary" (a16) g8 e4. | g8. a16 g8 e4. | d'4 d8 b4. | c4 c8 g4. | a4 a8 c8. b16 a8 | g8. a16 g8 e4. | a4 a8 c8. b16 a8 | g8. a16 g8 e4. | d'4 d8 f8.-> d16 b8 | c4. (e4) r8 | c8. (g16) e8 g8. f16 d8 | c4.~ c4 r8 \bar "|." } Translations In 1859, the Episcopal priest John Freeman Young, then serving at Trinity Church, New York City, wrote and published the English translation that is most frequently sung today, translated from three of Mohr's original six verses.Underwood, Byron Edward, "Bishop John Freeman Young, Translator of ' '", The Hymn, v. 8, no. 4, October 1957, pp. 123–132. The version of the melody that is generally used today is a slow, meditative lullaby or pastorale, differing slightly (particularly in the final strain) from Gruber's original, which was a "moderato" tune in time and siciliana rhythm.Meredith Ellis Little (2001). [http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.25698 Siciliana] . Grove Music Online. .Gerlinde Haid (1994). Siciliano als Typus weihnachtlicher Volksmusik. 175 Jahre "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" (in German), p.135–146. Salzburg. Today, the lyrics and melody are in the public domain, although newer translations usually are not. In 1998 the Silent Night Museum in Salzburg commissioned a new English translation by Bettina Klein of Mohr's German lyrics. Whenever possible, (and mostly), Klein leaves the Young translation unchanged, but occasionally Klein (and Mohr) varies markedly. For example, Nur das traute hochheilige Paar, Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar is translated by Young: "Round yon Virgin mother and child, Holy infant so tender and mild" whereas Klein rewords it: "Round yon godly tender pair, Holy infant with curly hair", a translation closer to the original.https://silent-night-museum.org/sounds/lyrics.htm Silent Night Museum 1998 translation] The carol has been translated into about 140 languages.Ronald M. Clancy, William E. Studwell. Best-Loved Christmas Carols. Christmas Classics Ltd, 2000. Lyrics (c. 1860) of the carol by Franz Gruber]] "Silent Night"|description=Choral version performed by the United States Army Chorus |filename2=Gruber - Schumann-Heink - Stille Nacht.ogg|title2="Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht"|description2= Solo performed by Ernestine Schumann-Heink |filename3=Silent Night (Kevin MacLeod) (ISRC USUAN1100075).oga|title3="Silent Night"|description3=Instrumental version played on piano by Kevin MacLeod in 2000}} : Musical settings Max Reger quotes the tune in the Christmas section of his organ pieces ''Sieben Stücke'', Op. 145. Alfred Schnittke composed an arrangement of "Stille Nacht" for violin and piano in 1978, as a holiday greeting for violinist Gidon Kremer. Due to its dissonant and nightmarish character, the miniature caused a scandal in Austria. In film Several theatrical and television films depict how the song was ostensibly written. Most of them however are based on a spurious legend about the organ breaking down at the church in Oberndorf, which appeared in a fictional story published in the U.S. in the 1930s. * The Legend of Silent Night (1968) TV film directed by Daniel Mann * Silent Night, Holy Night (1976) animated short film by Hanna-Barbera. * Silent Mouse (1988) television special directed and produced by Robin Crichton and narrated by Lynn Redgrave. * Buster & Chauncey's Silent Night (1998) direct-to-video animated featurette * Silent Night (2012) directed by Christian Vuissa * The First Silent Night (2014), documentary narrated by Simon Callow[http://www.netaonline.org/search/ProgramDetails.aspx?id=4346 First Silent Night, The] , production details References External links * * Song of peace “Silent Night” as a message of peace * Translation of all six verses of the German original * Free arrangements for piano and voice from Cantorion.org * Silent Night Chapel, origin of song * Category:1818 songs Category:19th-century hymns Category:Austrian songs Category:Christmas carols Category:Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity Category:Songs about Jesus